Be sure to include your name, daytime phone number, address, name and phone number of legal next-of-kin, method of payment, and the name of the funeral home/crematory to contact for verification of death.

Lopez-Cantera wants a judge to weigh in on whether his office should be mostly independent from county government. He can’t press his case on his own because both he and the county are represented by County Attorney Robert Cuevas, who says the property appraiser is effectively an elected department head.

“There is an ambiguity, and the only way to get it answered is to go to the court system and have a judge decide what the law says,” Lopez-Cantera said.

He will now try to raise private funds to hire outside counsel.

Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa said when she agreed to ask voters five years ago if the property appraiser should be an elected position, she didn’t think his office would be independent.

“When we discussed the creation of this office, it was a department of the county,” she said, suggesting a new ballot question asking voters to clarify their intent. That idea did not get traction.

Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who was also on the board in 2008, had a different interpretation of the property appraiser’s role. “I really thought that you were a lot more independent,” he told Lopez-Cantera, who took office in January.

But Diaz said he couldn’t support spending $50,000 in county funds for the property appraiser to retain an attorney. The commission voted 8-3 against Lopez-Cantera’s request.

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